The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed a Notice of Enforcement Decision on Friday, April 26, 2019, announcing a new system of annual penalty limits for HIPAA violations based on an entity’s level of culpability. The agency revised its previous interpretation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), which did not have an annual penalty cap varying on level of culpability.
This revised structure reinforces the idea that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance efforts can have a significant monetary impact in terms of future enforcement.
To read more on the revised penalty structure, please visit Life Sciences Legal Update.